The very worthy proposal of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) that menus should state energy values is undermined by its failure to use proper measurement units. UKMA has responded by advocating joules rather than so-called “calories” (whatever they may be).
Archive for the ‘Consumer affairs’ Category
Joules on the menu, please
Thursday, March 11th, 2010Will the European Commission challenge US labelling rules?
Saturday, January 16th, 2010A recent posting by NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) has prompted this question: Are American labelling requirements now illegal under WTO rules?
Tory spokesman supports centilitres of alcohol
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010In a commendable outbreak of common sense, Conservative health spokesman, Andrew Lansley has proposed that, in order to clarify the amount of alcohol being consumed, bottles and cans should be labelled with the quantity of pure alcohol in centilitres rather than in so called “units”. But will this lead to a wider realisation that draught beer should also be measured in litres?
Electric cars – an opportunity for SI, or a threat?
Friday, December 4th, 2009The arrival of electric cars on our streets will draw attention to measures for comparing performance.
Milk pricing – is there method in the supermarket muddle?
Monday, November 30th, 2009The pricing of milk should be simple and clear, for milk is a staple item in every household. In reality, confusion often reigns.
BIS sticks with pints of beer (but only on draught)
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009As expected the Business Department has refused to permit sales of draught beer and cider in convenient metric measures – but its reasoning is bizarre.
The English language – not to be taken for granted
Monday, April 27th, 2009Martin Vlietstra suggests a possible threat to our prosperity resulting from our resistance to change.
A sticky problem with symbols
Friday, April 3rd, 2009As a result of having to use two systems of measurement, many in the UK are familiar with neither. Philip Bladon, a regular contributor to MetricViews, draws our attention to yet another example.
Free-for-all on packages sizes, but no help for consumers?
Saturday, January 31st, 2009The Government has published its decisions on deregulating package sizes (as required by a 2007 EU Directive), including advice for business. But so far no advice for consumers.
Will 2009 bring metric-only labelling to the USA?
Thursday, January 1st, 2009The coming year may see progress in this area. MetricViews offers a guide for the novice.